Enerjet aims to take off in crowded budget carrier market next year

By The Canadian Press

CALGARY — The discount airline market is set to become even more crowded, as charter flight company Enerjet aims to relaunch itself as an ultra-low-cost carrier in 2019 after a decade of transporting oilsands workers and tour passengers.

An investment group headed by Tim Morgan says it plans to take off in a Canadian market that already includes WestJet Airlines Ltd.’s ultra-low-cost Swoop and Edmonton-based Flair Airlines. Canada Jetlines Ltd. is also set to launch next year.

In an interview, Morgan declined to say which routes Enerjet plans to launch, when service will start or how many planes will be deployed.

Morgan’s consortium includes Claridge Inc. — a private investment firm chaired by Stephen Bronfman, a scion of one Canada’s wealthiest families — and Stephenson Management Inc., where Cirque du Soleil chairman Mitch Garber has been chairman since 2008.

Another investor is Indigo LLP, an Arizona-based private equity firm that specializes in budget carriers such as Singapore’s Tiger Airways and Florida’s Spirit Airlines.

Morgan, who co-founded WestJet, has been trying to take Enerjet into the budget carrier market for some time, but encountered hurdles after three former executives he’d tapped for that purpose sued Calgary-based Enerjet for breach of contract in 2015.

Companies in this story: (TSX:WJA)

The Canadian Press

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